Reading Redefined ?

Captive on a five hour flight, shackled in an ever-shrinking airplane seat, I had a chance to catch up on journals and find a few gems hidden within the pile of paper.  One of the best articles I've read recently was Annette Lamb's  Reading Redefined for a Transmedia Universe.    Thanks to ISTE for offering this via the web! 

This article does a great job of explaining where the print world is headed to accommodate our transliterate alien culture.  If you are looking for a good read to fill-in-the-blanks on eReading as well as peek at the future evolution eBooks, take the time to study every paragraph in this article on alien print formats you may encounter. 

I found it especially interesting when she concludes the article with the caveats in a quagmire world of muddling fact, fiction and misinformation.  This is clearly exemplified in the last section with the heading New Opportunities, New Challenges.  Lamb says, "Traditional fiction is a representation that is invented or imaginary and not factual....  But what happens when you're in a fictional augmented or alternative reality world, but working with non-fiction materials? Or, when you're in the real world working with fictional materials?  Or, when authors develop websites that are intended to be misleading or deceptive? ... Spaceheadz by  Jon Sciszka is advertised as a work of fiction...however the book also contains pages with factual information about topics such as sound waves and electromagnetic fields.  To make it ever more complicated, links within the story take the reader to websites with fake content such as the Mrs. Halley's Comets, and Anti-alien Agency...."  

So, in addition to new transliterate formats, we need to pay attention to mixed credibility resources.

For those who haven't heard about transliteracy and the reading revolution-- take the time to think about it.  Reading is no longer two dimensional, chronological, black and white, top-down, left-right.  Reading is now multi-dimensional and multi-mediums.
(See previous blog postings on transliteracy:

Librarydoor: All's a Buzz Over Transliteracy...

Librarydoor: What is transliteracy and are you addressing it?
Librarydoor: More on Transliteracy )

The real message is that librarians need to insure we are preparing our 21st Century students well to discern the credible truth.  We no longer should just teach fact, fiction & opinion-- but rather teach fact, fiction, opinion and misinformation.  My space helmet off to Annette!